This is a record of my journey as a Muslim. I used to be Catholic and belonged to a missionary organisation. After my conversion, I sat on the board of a Muslim converts' organisation and specialised in da'wah programmes, convert management, interfaith issues and apostasy cases. I am an initiate of a Sufi order. As such, the articles and writings tend to cover these areas.
All the Arabic and graphics could not have been done without the help of my wife, Zafirah.

Monday, 7 May 2012

Grand Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Kharqani (q.s.)

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ
ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Grand
Shaykh Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Ja’far al-Kharqani (q.s.) was the Arch-Intercessor of his time and unique in his
station. He was the focus of attention
of his people and an ocean of knowledge from which saints still receive waves
of light and spiritual knowledge. His shaykh was Abu Yazid Tayfur al-Bistami (q.s.).

Shaykh
Abu al-Hasan al-Kharqani (q.s.)
proved a deep well of knowledge for his followers and supporters. He emptied himself of everything except Allah’s
(s.w.t.) Oneness, refusing for
himself all titles and aspirations. He
would not be known as a follower of any science, even a spiritual science, and
he said, “I am not a hermit. I am not an
ascetic. I am not a speaker. I am not a Sufi. O God, You are One, and I am one in Your
Oneness.”

Of
knowledge and practice, he said, “Scholars and servants in the lower world are
numerous but they do not benefit you unless you are engaged in the satisfaction
of God’s Desire and, from morning to night, are occupied with the deeds that God Accepts.”

About
being a Sufi, he said, “The Sufi is not the one who is always carrying the
prayer rug, nor the one who is wearing patched clothes, nor the one who keeps
certain customs and appearances, but the Sufi is the one to whom everyone’s
focus is drawn, although he is hiding himself.”

He also
said, “The
Sufi is the one who in the daylight does not need the sun, in the night does
not need the moon. The essence of Sufism
is absolute non-existence that has no need of existence because there is no
existence besides God’s Existence.”

He
was asked about truthfulness. He said, “Truthfulness
is to speak your conscience.”

Of
the heart, he said, “What is the best thing? The heart that is always in remembrance of
God. The best of hearts is the heart
that contains nothing but the Presence of God, Almighty and Exalted. Today it will have been forty years that God
has been Looking into my heart and has Seen nothing except Himself. I have had nothing in my heart except God for
forty years. While my ego is asking for
cold water and a drink of milk, I have not allowed it that for forty years in
order to control myself.”

He also
said, “The
vision with the eyes of the head does not bring happiness, but the vision with
the eyes of the heart and the secret that God Gives to the soul will bring out
that happiness.”

Of
Shaykh Bayazid (q.s.), he said, “When
Abu Yazid said, ‘I want not to want’ that is exactly the wanting that is real
desire.”

He
was asked, “Who is the appropriate person to speak about annihilation and
subsistence?”

He answered, “That is
knowledge for the one who is as one suspended by a silk thread from the heavens
to the earth when a big cyclone comes and takes all trees, houses, and
mountains and throws them in the ocean until it fills the ocean. If that cyclone is unable to move the one who
is hanging by the silk thread, then he is the one who can speak on annihilation
and subsistence.”

Once
Sultan Mahmud al-Ghazni visited Shaykh Abu al-Hasan (q.s.) and asked his opinion of Shaykh Bayazid al-Bistami (q.s.). He said, “Whoever follows Bayazid is going to
be guided. Whoever saw him and felt love
towards him in his heart will reach a happy ending.”

At
that, Sultan Mahmud said, “How is that possible when Abu Jahl saw the Prophet (s.a.w.) and he was unable to reach a
happy ending but rather ended up in misery?”

He
answered, “It is because Abu Jahl did not see the Prophet (s.a.w.) but he saw Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah. And if he saw the Messenger of God (s.a.w.), he would have moved out of
misery into happiness. As God Said, ‘You
see them looking at you but without clear vision.’”

… Thou wilt see them looking at thee, but they see
not. (Surah al-A’araf:198)

He
continued with the saying already quoted, “The vision with the eyes of the
head ...”

He
also said, “Ask for difficulties in order for tears to appear because God Loves
those who cry,” referring to the advice of the Prophet (s.a.w.) to cry much.

With
regards to supplications, he said, “In whatever way you ask God for anything,
still the Qur’an is the best way. Do not
ask God except through the Qur’an. The
inheritor of the Prophet (s.a.w.) is
the one who follows his footsteps and never puts black marks in his Book of
Deeds.”

Grand
Shaykh Abu al-Hasan al-Kharqani (q.s.)
passed away on Tuesday, 10th of Muharram in 425 AH / 1033 CE. He was buried in Kharqan, a village of the
city of Bistam in Iran. He passed on the
secret of the Golden Chain to Shaykh Abu ‘Ali al-Fadhl ibn Muhammad al-Farmadi
at-Tusi (q.s.). Shaykh Abu ‘Ali al-Farmadi (q.s.) was the shaykh of al-Hujatullah,
Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Mohammad al-Ghazzali at-Tusi (r.a.).